r ellenberger

In my last blog I was just about to meet some people who were hopefully going to travel with me to Alice. Turned out they (a couple) had way too much luggage, not just backpacks but big suitcase style bags; it just wasn't going to work. So after having to break the bad news to them that it wasn't going to work I cleaned the car and wandered around Adelaide. Everything was closed for Anzac day so not much really doing, I couldn't even buy cereal or groceries, I had to eat what was in the car. I did manage to lock my keys in the car but thanks to the help of a friendly Canadian guy the two of us managed to get a piece of coat hanger in and open the door. The next morning as I was logging on to the net to check for any new traveller companion posts my phone rang and it was Paul, an American from Colorado who has just arrived at the hostel. Even though I had booked for another night, I decided there was no point wasting more time doing nothing in Adelaide, and 30 minutes later ...

My relief was two fold.  First the flight from Surfers to Adelaide was over, the stomach troubles that had tormented me for the last two hours flushed away in a toilet. Secondly, my car was still at the airport. And everything was still inside.  And it was still locked. All that worrying for nothing... Drove bach to the YHA, parked the car, tuna dinner and into bed.  So everything is (hopefully) getting back to normal. Im going to meet some random people from the website gumtree.com.au in the next few minutes. Hopefully they are not axe murderers and hopefully they are going to travel with me to Alice Springs.

I write this after a week in Surfers Paradise, but then Im getting ahead of myself. Woke up at 8am as I had booked a flight to Sydney to surprise mum for her bday. The family was going to drive up on Saturday to Surfers Paradise and then spend a week in the sun with Sam. So I had breakfast, organised the car, and then set out to Adelaide airport. The girl at reception said it was 25mins away I didnt leave too much time, but as I was driving along my phone and its GPS suddenly lost the plot and put me somewhere out of Adelaide. Shit shit shit shit. Im driving along, trying to reset my phone when smack, I hit the back of the big landcruiser in front of me. Thankfully they have a towbar and no damage is done on their end, but my bull bar has been restyled to have a big dent in it. Im driving along trying to find my way back to my hostel when I pull up next to a taxi driver. I jumped out and asked for directions, and it turns out he is going to the airport...

So where were we? Thats right I was driving around Australia and you were reading from the comfort of your own home... So I managed to repair my phone to a semi usable state, for a day at least, but it is back to its unusable best so I need real internet for updates. My last post left Tom, Stefano and I somewhere past Mt Gambia, heading towards Adelaide. We stopped at a caravan park to check prices somewhere outside of Adelaide, the standard $30 fair, but the caravan park owners warned us of the dangers of camping on the side of the road, the cost of a fine, and the social and personal health benefits of staying at a caravan park. Alas, we drove on to somewhere in the Barosa valley and found a nice dirt road to camp the night. It rained heavily in the night and the weather was very cold, but the morning broke with sunshine and things soon warmed up a little. As we were in the Barosa, we decided to spend the morning driving around sampling the sights, coffee and wines of...

Sorry for the sporadic blogging but my phone was swamped by an enormous wave at the 12 apostles and is now in a semi functioning state. After my last update at Cape Ottway the three of us trialed three men in a two man tent and found it to be a rather intimate experience. Lots of spooning especially for the man in the middle. After our sordid nights sleep we headed back along the GOR, winding our way to the the first of the 12 apostles. The weather had been pretty poor since Melbourne and the apostles was no different; heavily overcast and sprinkling rain making photography a bitch. Even with the poor weather there were tourists aplenty (the worst kind of tourists, tour bus tourists...  Yay for being a snobby tourist). We drove past the first apostles to somewhere near port Campbell where we walked down a path to some low rocks next to the beach to check out the enormous waves rolling in. After standing there for 15 minutes watching the spray from the breaking waves fall infront ...

Had a decent enough nights sleep considering the noise from the rowdy neighbours. We hoped for better camping somewhere else so we drove furher into the park. At some point the road forked and we took the 4wd only track. When they said 4wd they really meant it as the road was badly eroded and some of the inclines were enough to get my nerves buzzing. The car managed well enough and we were soon on our way out of the park as there was no basically no camping to be had. We then drove to Mt Samaria and crossed the entire park looking for a camp site but everything was taken. On the very edge of the park we managed to find some improptu camping on the side of the road and that's where we settled. So basically we had lots of driving, nice scenery, but a stressful way to try and camp. The next morning we planned to head further north into the highlands of Victoria to try and find even more remote camping as far away from Melbourne as possible. However, at about 2pm I had a call from a f...

Not much to say for today, spent the whole day on the ferry. This time we made sure to head straight for the cinema to get decent seating. Basically stayed there for the next 9 hours. Arrived in melbourne at 6.15 and tried to find some cheap accomodation with parking somewhere near. Ended up driving out of Melbourne city towards the outer southern suburbs. Stayed in the worst caravan park of the trip. Absolutely packed full, limited amenities and the ones that were there were broken and filthy. Had a dinner of tuna on bread so we could just get into bed and fall asleep, the sooner to get out of there. The next morning we drove out of the park and had breakfast in a random park nearby. Drove back into the city, found some payed parking and spent the next 5 hours walking around the city. Not much was open because of Easter Friday but still plenty of architecture, straight streets (there's a lesson Sydney) and attractive girls to admire. From Melbourne city we thought to explore some ...

http://rellenberger.smugmug.com/Travel/Aus-Trip-Week-2/11697260_tUzMi

Pretty much a nothing day. Woke up and stoked the fire, made some coffee and had breakfast. Drove back to Devonport where we spent the day walking around town. Back to the caravan park where we first started at and that was the day.

Awoke to the noise of Sfefano getting up to go to the toilet at some insane hour (6am). False start. Two hours later and the sun peeked through the trees enough to begin evaporating the nights condensation. At our breakfast of corn flakes and coffee a middle aged hipee told us that the ferry back to Melbourne was booked out for large vehicles (anything over 2.1m causes issues) from Saturday onwards until mid April. Horror visions of being stuck in Tasmania while the weather went from cold to even colder materialised. Apparently a big caravan convention was finishing somewhere and every man and his dog and his caravan was heading back to the mainland. We were hoping to book for the next day when our fancy took us but obviously this stratergy needed to be revised. On to the net to check availability and we are booked for Thursday. Obviously Spirit of Tasmania know you are up a creek without a paddle as they sting you an ex...